Condi: Failing

I recall a local RadioYapper going into verbal....ahhh....bliss over the possibility of a Condi Rice run for the Presidency. I didn't understand that then; it was never obvious to me that Ms. Rice was anything more than a very bright and likeable lady.

It may well be that those are all the credentials she will have to show...

The "surge" of troops to Iraq has produced the signal foreign policy success of George Bush's second term. In his devastating Weekly Standard cover story on Condoleezza Rice's tenure as Secretary of State, my friend Stephen Hayes reports that Rice opposed the surge. (Hayes quotes Rice confirming her opposition to the surge in a May 9 interview conducted with him for the article.) The success of the surge is of course attributable to the brilliant performance of the American armed forces under the leadership of General Petraeus.

In his intensely reported article, Hayes takes a look at the major areas of foreign policy committed to Rice's care during Bush's second term: North Korea, Syria, Iran and Iran's terrorist proxies. In these areas, the administration's record is one of miscalculation, retreat and failure. Why? By way of explanation, Hayes quotes an unnamed State Department official: "We have gone from a policy of preemption to a policy of preemptive capitulation."

As one might expect, PowerLine's focus is on the Gordian Knot called the Middle East, where there is no initiative which seems to work. I don't think Condi should take the fall for that, because it seems that a 1,000-year history of intransigence (on both, or all three or four, sides) is a lot to overcome in 4 years--or 8.

But opposing the Surge? Bumbling on North Korea?

She coulda done better.